AAHL confident as year two begins

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Year one of the All American Hockey Association was less than perfect. In fact, a lot of people would have bet the farm that the league would not see a second season – and those bets would have been wrong. This week, the newly-renamed All American Hockey League released its 2009-2010 schedule along with the news that the Detroit Hitmen will join the Chicago Blaze, Evansville Icemen, Battle Creek Revolution and the defending champion Chi-Town Shooters in the lineup when the season kicks off on October 23rd. “It was just good to get it (first season) done,” Commissioner Bob Langdon said. “We had lots of growing pains but I assume we learned from them all and we can carry on into season two.” Everyone involved with the AAHA knew from the start that with the haste the league was put together in, it wasn’t necessarily going to be a problem-free season. When the Detroit Dragons folded in early January, forcing the league to hastily bring in the Blaze as a “traveling team” to finish out the road part of the Dragons’ schedule, many observers thought the entire league would crash. It didn’t and the Shooters defeated the Revolution in the first ever AAHA championship series in a hard fought five-game series. “Obviously, we had our ups and downs in year one as we expected to. Granted, we couldn’t have pinpointed exactly what those problems were going to be but we did expect that it wasn’t going to be 100% smooth sailing,” Evansville G.M. and league co-founder Chip Rossetti said. “The fact that we were able to complete a season, have a playoffs, crown a champion and then be able to sit back and actually start preparing for year two with all the teams that finished year one coming back for year two is something that unfortunately you don’t seen in single-A hockey these days.” The first thing that the AAHA did following the season was reorganize itself as the AAHL. According to Rossetti, the restructuring provides a much higher level of commitment to the league as a whole. “Last year we all sort of came together as the association just for the purposes of completing the season. By changing the structure of the league, we add additional bylaws and things like that that we all agree to take part in,” he said. “In doing so, we’re showing that we’re committed to one another and we’re committed to the All American Hockey League for the near future anyways.” Even in a year which saw several teams close their doors, the AAHL was so confident it would return that talk of expansion began late in the season. Initially, the league announced that it was planning on putting a team in Lapeer, Michigan when it appeared that the IHL’s Flint Generals might not return. When the Generals’ situation improved, the AAHL called its own audible and found a new location in a familiar place – Fraser, the former home of the Dragons. Langdon admitted that the league was misled by the Dragons’ ownership regarding its financial stability and refused help until it was too late to save the team. This time around, the commissioner said, the ownership is solid and is already working to reach out to the loyal hockey fans in the area with hopes of increasing ticket sales. “I know they have a great, passionate fan base who love hockey there (Fraser) and they will support any hockey that comes in there. I think that small fan base can be expanded with the marketing that the Hitmen are doing already and are working hard on,” Langdon said. “I think they can expand that Fraser fan base and grow it because it (Great Lakes Sports City) is a great facility and it’s a great hockey area.” According to Rossetti, the groundwork has already been laid for future growth. He said that the league has had interest from investor groups in New York and New Jersey that could have been ready this season but would have stretched travel beyond what the league was prepared to handle. Rossetti said that the league hopes to be able to develop a “self-sustaining” eastern division by this time next year. “We did approve their ownership (eastern teams), we did approve their membership. We made some attempts to try to find a bridge team in between our existing teams and these two new teams but unfortunately we weren’t able to get it nailed down in time,” Rossetti said. “We just decided that rather than accrue the additional expenses of trying to play two teams out in the east, we’d just put them on hold for a year and they were fine with that. We’re working hard to establish an eastern division for our league and we’re more than halfway there at this point.” Beyond the expansion, the AAHL is working hard to build and maintain relationships with other leagues, especially the IHL. As a developmental league, the AAHL sent numerous players up the level ladder a year ago. This year, Evansville has signed an agreement to work directly with the Fort Wayne Komets, providing players when the Komets find themselves shorthanded. Just within the past week, Battle Creek inked a similar agreement to provide players to the Muskegon Lumberjacks. In Evansville’s case, the working agreements with the IHL have more importance. The Icemen have announced that in a couple of seasons from now, they will be joining the IHL. To that end, Rossetti has brought in veteran coach Jack Collins to help instill a higher level of play. Battle Creek made a similar move, hiring 13-year player Bob Clouston as its bench boss while the Chicago Blaze recently brought in former IHL assistant coach Steve Pronger as its head man. Raising the stakes in the coaching ranks, Rossetti said, is helping raise the credibility of the league in hockey circles. “By bringing in a guy like Jack who has experience at the double-A level, we feel that we’re taking the next step toward preparing ourselves to play at a higher level even though we’re very much committed to playing in the AAHL for the foreseeable future,” he said. “We’re showing that we’re not just some fly-by-night operation. We’re committed to bringing in the best potential talent – both the players and the coaches – that we possibly can. The caliber of play that’s going to be in this league, let alone on our team, is going to be significantly higher than what we saw last year.” With year two on the horizon and a positive outlook beyond that, it might be easy for the AAHL to sit back and enjoy. For Langdon, whose is still a working on-ice official, the AAHL is still a work in progress and complacency is not an option. “We’re confident but we’re not going to be complacent. We’re definitely going to keep working hard on what we have to make it stronger,” he said. “I think everything in each organization is stable for what we have right now. Of course, everyone wants to make it better and better and grow it and make it more successful. I don’t think we’re going to be complacent but we’re definitely confident going into year two.” These days, that kind of confidence may not guarantee success but it is a very good start. Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com